Sacramento, South Lake Tahoe shatter temperature records

Danielle Brooks, 33, of Carnelian Bay jogs back home from the post office on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015. While there is snow at higher elevations, the lack of snow at lake level has some people feeling like there is a seasonal purgatory.
Hector Amezcua
hamezcua@sacbee.com

Danielle Brooks, 33, of Carnelian Bay jogs back home from the post office on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015. While there is snow at higher elevations, the lack of snow at lake level has some people feeling like there is a seasonal purgatory.
Hector Amezcua
hamezcua@sacbee.com

Sacramento set a record temperature Friday as a strong high pressure ridge continues to warm up the region.

Downtown reached 77 degrees, breaking a previous record of 74, set in 2006, according to the National Weather Service. Sacramento Executive Airport hit 73 degrees, one degree higher than the record, also set in 2006.

“It’s extraordinarily warm,” said weather service forecaster Eric Kurth, noting that more records could be broken through the long President’s Day weekend.

“The high pressure ridge will get even stronger,” he said.

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The Sierra Nevada got its own dose of sun on Friday, when South Lake Tahoe broke its previous record by 8 degrees. It was 65 degrees at Lake Tahoe Airport, beating the 57 degree record of 2011, according to the weather service.

The warm-up in the Sierra is being caused partially by the lack of snow cover, Kurth said.

“The snow has been at pretty high elevations,” he said. “Without having a lot of that snow, temperatures are able to get warmer.”

Call The Bee’s Richard Chang at (916) 321-1018. Follow him on Twitter @RichardYChang.